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In the 1940's sugar along with many other "things" had been rationed.
Sugar needed for wine making was an issue. Dad always entertained with dances and wine
during the heavy days after the depression. People flocked to the outbacks of Osage country
to enjoy a night away from their fear filled days.
Mother's large family of the Poncas at the time had no use for sugar so readily traded the sugar for our beef. Illegal? In a way but everyone was happy so no one complained. The Indians were happy and the "upper crust," too.
Here's the recipe, not like the one Dad used to make in great barrels, but one you can easily do:
Red Red Wine
5 cups sugar
3 quarts grape juice
1 package cube yeast, like the bakery uses
you can buy this is the refrigerated section
1 large balloon
1 gallon sized glass container with a small neck. I
found some amber, antique clorox bottles but
you can use clear glass. The videos for wine
making show plastic but I stay away from plastic.
Soda
Wash bottles with soda and rinse well.
Mix wine and sugar, yeast together. Pour into bottles
Secure balloon to top.
Set in a dark place where you will not forget to check
on it. When balloon rises and then falls back down the
wine is ready.
Simple and easy.
The Joneses were by no means rich in those days. Grandmother often served cornbread
and milk for an evening meal. Of course, the cornbread was put in a sherbert dish (taken out
of an oatmeal box) set on a lace doily she had croched. A tiny grasshopper sized glass of wine occasionally was beside the cornmeal and milk that is if we had been very good. How grown up we felt.
Grandmother and Mother sewed our coats from the good parts of the adults cast off coats. So you see, dear reader, poverty is a mind game, and that is "How To Keep Up With the Joneses."
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